RebelStuck
by ThatOneHomestucker
Summary: Jade Harley is a genetic experiment of the Condescension. Karkat is the leader of an underground rebel cell. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

_Pain._ That's all that you're feeling. _Pain._ It sears through your arms and legs and every inch of your body. A bright light pierces your eyes and you want to scream. You try, but no sound escapes your lips. Your skin feels like it is on fire as countless needles with strange concoctions are shoved into your arms.

Your name is Jade Harley and you have been turned into a brutal science experiment.

Be Rose

"Captain," you say cooly as your commander finishes yelling at Jake for recklessness.

"WHAT?" he shouts and turns around swiftly. You raise your eyebrows and cross your arms. The captain rolls his eyes dramatically and lowers his voice. "Sorry, Lalonde. What is it?"

"Thank you, Karkat. We have received word from our insider that The Condesce has succeeded in creating a powerful human hybrid. She mutated the human's genes and the human developed abnormal abilities. Our source isn't quite sure what this hybrid is capable of, but she's positive that it could be detrimental to our plans." you say. Karkat pinches the bridge of his nose and drags his hand down his face. He sighs and you can see the bags under his eyes. Say what you will about Vantas being the commander. He may be grumpy and harsh, but he did his job well.

"How long has it been since you last slept?" you ask. Your commander glares at you.

"Fuck if I know. I don't have time to sleep, there's an evil empire to overthrow and I have to make sure all this shit gets done since I'm the leader and a lot of the others can act like serious fucking wrigglers sometimes." Karkat runs his hand through his messy hair.

"What do you suggerst we do about the hybrid?" you ask quietly.

"Well, it's fucking obvious isn't it? Send Strider on a rescue mission. This human cannot stay in the hands of that dammned empress." He turns to leave.

"Sir," you pause, "Which Strider?" Karkat turns back to you.

"Does it matter?"

Be Dave

You walk stealthily down the dark corridor, broken blade in hand. You're very careful not to trip any alarms. You don't worry too much about cameras, the guy that monitors those should be asleep for a good while longer, you hit him really hard. The top thing on your list of priorities is rescuing this hybrid.

The hall is long, but you know exactly where you're going. Your informant on the inside told you, west wing, third floor, right side of the hall, 17th door. She said she would be waiting in the room to help you get out faster.

"seven, nine, eleven, thirteen," you mutter under your breath, carefully counting the doors until you reach the 17th. The steel handle is harshly cold as you push it down and slowly swing the door inward. The room is small and completely chrome. A human girl lays on a table in the middle of the room, sensors are attached to her, monitoring everything. She is almost completely naked except for a few white bands covering her personal areas. Her arms and ankles are tied to the table, giving her no chance to escape. Her eyes are closed in a troubled sleep.

A young troll girl is fussing at the straps binding the human girl to the table. She looks up in fright as you enter the room, but her fears are quelled when she realizes who you are.

"Sup, Feferi," you nod as you walk over to help her. "Thanks for the intel. We can't let the Batterwitch keep up stuff like this." Fef smiles at you and goes back to untying the girl's wrist. "But seriously, thank you. We know how much you risk by helping us and we can't thank you enough." Fef just waves you off.

"I support your cause and I want to do anything I can and I know I'm most useful on the inside. It's not everyday that the heiress to and evil empire allies herself with a rebel cell." She sighs as the strap falls away from the human. "No one should ever have to go through what this poor girl was subjected to." She moves onto and ankle strap and begins unraveling the knot. "The sensors on her will spark an alarm once removed, so don't take them off until you have her untied. Then leave as quickly as possible. Did you bring a hoverboard?"

You nod and produce it from your sylladex.

"Good. I have to leave now before I'm suspected of anything."

"Wait," you say, "How many more people did she plan on turning into hybrids?" Fef smiled a bit.

"None. The project cost The Empress a lot of money, she wanted to make this girl the ultimate weapon. But I found out bfore the project went too far. Now hurry, you don't have all night." Feferi quickly turns and exits the room.

You go back to untying the girls ankle. You wonder what the girl was spliced with, she looked pretty normal. Your question is answered when you go to untie her other wrist.

On the girl's head is a fluffy, white pair of dog ears. They're lying flat against her head in fear, even though she is alseep. It takes a few moments but you finally break the girl's final bond to the table.

You touch her shoulder to see if she'll respond. Her eyes fly open and her ears perk up. She swings out her arms and punches you in the face. You fall back clutching your jaw as machines start beeping freantically and a loud alarm starts ringing. The girl is yanking all of the sensors off her body.

She makes for the door, but you flashstep to stop her. She struggles against your grip on her arms.

"Whoah, calm down. I'm here yo get you out." you speak calmly even though you are clearly struggling to keep a hold of her. The human stops moving for a moment and looks at you. Her arms are tense beneath your hands, ready to continue the stuggle at any moment. The alarms are starting to worry you. You don't have long. "I promise. I'm not here to do any fucked up experiments on you. I'm with a resistance cell and I can get you out of here, but you have to cooperate."

The girl squints at you from behind the large glasses perched on her nose. "How do I know I can trust you?" She says. You smile a bit.

"You don't, but it seems that I'm your only chance. Now come on!" You take your hands away from her arms and grab her wrist. The hall is now pulsing with red light and you can hear voices shouting around the corner. You and the girl run at full speed towards the window at the end of the hall. The voices have rounded the corner now and are shouting at you.

"Duck!" you say as bullets begin to fly. The windo gets closer and closer. "Hold on tight!" You produce your hoverboard from you sylladex and pull the girl on with you as you crash through the window and into the night.

"You're crazy!" She screams at you as you speed over the walls of the Empress's castle. She is clutching at you tightly in fear.

"No," you answer, "I'm Dave Strider."

"My name is Jade Harley and I really hope I didn't make a mistake by trusting you."

Be Karkat

"WHERE THE HELL IS HE?" You shout. Strider isn't back yet and your source told you the alarms have been sounded. "IF THAT ASSHAT GOT HIMSELF CAPTURED, I'LL KILL HIM." You're pacing around the room. Losing an agaent like him would be a tragic blow to your organization, but allowing the Empress to develop a super soldier would mean the end of everything.

"LALONDE, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHERE HE IS?"

"None, it would seem that his communications device was destroyed or damaged, possibly in a struggle."

"FUCK!" you scream. This is really bad. Like, _really_ bad. Your thinkpan is starting to hurt from the magnitude of bad this is going to be if Strider doesn't show up soon.

"Calm down, Vantas." an even, snarky voice interjects. You swing around to face it's owner. "I'm back."

"STRIDER, WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?" You yell. You can practically feel a vein popping on your forehead.

Dave leans against the wall, revealing a girl covered by only a few bandage like items. "I was rescuing the damsel in distress like you told me. It got all kind of crazy up in that shit, but I got us out just in time and rescued this fair maiden like some sort of fuckin knight."

You roll your eyes and open your mouth to comment, but one of your weapons specialists walks in.

"Hey, Karkat. There's this design that me and Jane want you to take a look at, it's got this thing that..." John looks up from the blueprints that his is holding and his eyes get wide. "DAVE!" he shouts and runs over to him, dropping the blueprints.

"I'm so relieved that you're safe!" If Strider wasn't already leaning against the wall, you're sure that the force of Egbert's tackle/hug would have knocked him over. You sigh and open your mouth to yell at that douchebag Strider, bt you give up when Dave takes Johns face in his hands and plants a kiss. You already know where this is going.

"YOU! HUMAN GIRL." You shout instead. The strange female perks up and looks at you. It's only now that you notice the canine like ears twitching on her head. Her eyes are wide and alert and she looks kind of scared. You let out an angry sigh and speak a little softer. "Follow me."


	2. Chapter 2

Be Jade

The strange troll leads you down a twisted corridor towards what he called a respiteblock. The silence between the two of you is suffocating, but you're too frightened to say anything. The troll that Dave called Vantas looks back at you, but he quickly looks forward again. He removes the gun holsters from his shoulders and takes off his sweater. You're taken by surprise at his lack of an undershirt, but you quickly forget that.

"Here," he mumbles, shoving the black article into your arms. "You must be cold." In truth, you were cold, but you didn't want to be a bother. The sweater is a bit too large on you, but it covers you and warms you up quickly.

"So..." the troll begins, "What is your name?"

You look up in surprise at the question. The troll looks back at you, his grumpy face imploring you to answer. "Jade," you respond, "Jade Harley." Vantas nods and continues leading you down the hall until he stops in front of a series of doors. Most have name plates attached to them, identifying them as occupied. The troll opens and unmarked door and steps aside.

"This is your respiteblock, or bedroom as you humans call it. The area we just came from is our command center. If you have any questions, now would be the time to ask." Vantas states.

You take a breath and start, "Um, alright. How did you know I was in there? And why are you helping a rebel cell, you're a troll aren't you?" your questions start to fall from your lips more rapidly. "How many people are involved in this? How do you stay hidden? Wh-"

"HOLY FUCK, SHUT UP!" the troll snaps, you shut your mouth and stare at the ground, "Jegus, give me a chance to fucking answer." You raise your eyes up expectantly. He sighs and begins, "We found out about you from one of our inside sources. We were told that you were being mutated into some form of super soldier and we weren't going to let the Condescension have such a weapon at her disposal." the troll stops for a breath and continues, "And to answer your incredibly STUPID question about trolls and rebel cells, I'm not the only one involved in this. Most of us are of the lowest blood castes, but we have some high-bloods volunteers. We've been working for a long time to gain control. But in order to do that, we have to overthrow the Condescension. There's no telling how many people are actually involved in this, I only know about this faction and a few other cells. And as you saw earlier, we've teamed up with the few humans that managed to avoid enslavement and we are working to get past the Empress' security while gathering more support. And I don't just help these rebels, I fucking lead them." He puts his hands in his pockets and opens his mouth again, " Finally, we stay hidden because we are off of the Condescension's radar here. We discovered these caverns a long time ago, expanding and modifying them to fit our needs. My second in command, Sollux, handles all of the security of this place so if you need to more know, he's the person to ask."

"Oh." you say, feeling just a bit stupid, "I understand. It's very interesting." The troll nods and turns to walk away and you almost let him before you remember. "Wait!" you exclaim, "Ummm, are there any clothes in here?" Vantas's eyes widen a tiny bit.

"Shit, just...uh, give me a moment." He opens the door next to yours and emerges a few minutes later carrying a stack of black. "You can borrow some of my stuff for now, until Kanaya can fit you for gear. It's all a bit small for me, so hopefully it will fit you better than that sweater. When you're finished, come back to the command center for briefing."

You just nod quietly and feel a strange warmth in your cheeks as he hands you the clothes. "Thank you, Vantas." you mutter. He looks at you and raises and eyebrow.

"Just call me Karkat, or "commander", or "captain"."

Be John

"Are you sure that you're alright?" you ask again as you fret around Dave. You always get so worried when he goes on a mission. "Nothing hurts? No bruises? Scratches?" You lift his arm and check carefully.

"John," Dave interupts as he pulls you to his bare chest, "I'm totally fine. I got in an out as soon as possible, just like you asked." You open your mouth to say something but Dave shushes you, "Everything is fine, John. I'm here in one piece and my mission is complete. No need to flip your shit." He squeezes you closer to his chest and you look up at him. You're still shocked when you see him without his sunglasses, his eyes are such a strange shade of red, but you are comforted that he is so at ease around you that he can take them off. Dave seems to understand your thoughts and he smiles at you as he bends down to give you a kiss.

You can feel Dave grin as you respond with vigor. His hands travel up your arms and cup your face as you wrap your arms around his neck. Everything feels just right with him and you soon forget your worry in the security of his arms. Dave relates the tale of his mission, explaining every detail of the security and of the girls' imprisonment. He describes the silver room and the devices attatched to her body. He tells you about the fear in her eyes when she woke up and her struggle against him.

"Holy cow," you whisper, "That's crazy. I mean... just... wow."

"Exactly," Dave agrees, "And we should probably get back to the command center. Karkat is already pissed at me. We can probably find out more about Jade there."

Be Rose

The command center is humming with quiet activity as trolls and humans gather around for the day's final report. Karkat stands in the center of the circle and beckons the new girl, Jade, forward. She walks into the center meekly, her discomfort is clear on her face. Everyone gasps at the twitching dog ears on her head and their whispers roll through the room. Jade looks like she's ready to disappear into the oversized sweater on her back. You can't help but feel sorry for the poor girl, so when someone next to you begins to freak about her ears, you promptly smack them and gesture to Karkat.

"LISTEN UP!" His voice booms through the room and everyone falls silent. "Aradia has contacted us and support for our movement is growing rapidly. Soon we may have an open war on our hands and you all need to be prepared." Karkat pauses and looks around the room. "John and Jane, I was impressed with your latest designs, I want you to start production immediatley. With weapons like those, we will stand a much better chance against the Condescension. Sollux, I need you to up security and talk to Dave about the defenses of the Emperess' castle, if we're ever going to succeed in this revoution we have to be able to break through those walls." He turns to you and sighs, "Rose, I need to relay new orders to our ground agents. They must be more cautious because the Condescension is no doubt going to try harder to find and kill them after Dave made such a scene."

You look at your brother from across the room and raise your eyebrows. He shrugs his shoulders and John shoves him a bit, knocking him off balance. You roll your eyes and return your attention to your commander.

"And now that we've addressed all of that, we have a new member of our team. This," he puts his hand on Jade's shoulder, "is Jade Harley. She is the super-soldier that the Condescension was trying to create. From this point on, she is one of us and you shall respect her as you respect everyone else here." a buzz traveled through the room as everyone tried to get a good look at the new girl.

"Are there any questions?" Karkat asked. No one answered. "Very well, you may disperse."


	3. Chapter 3

Be Karkat

"Kanaya," you call, "take Jade and fit her for gear... and some street clothes if you can."

Kanaya looks at you strangely, "Yes, I Can Do That, But Karkat... You-" she stops when you cut her off.

"There isnt time to waste, take the girl and get her properly clothed – And Equius," you shout, "Go with them and find a place where Jade can be of use." Equius appears from a side room and nods curtly. The group turns the corner and you swear you can hear them laughing.

You roll your eyes and sit down. The chair is unusually cold agains your back, so you lean forward to rest your head for a bit. Your bare arms are warm against your face. The warmth urges you to close your eyes- wait, your BARE ARMS? You snap your eyes open and sit up. "SHIT!" You shout. Looking down, you realize that you never put on a shirt after you gave your sweater to Jade. "DAMMIT!" Suddenly aware of the cold air against your chest, you get up and walk towards your respiteblock.

As you wind your way through the rock halls, Sollux finds you and just smiles. You glare at him.

"WHAT THE FUCK, SOLLUX?!" you grab his shoulders, "Why didn't you tell me I forgot a shirt?!" Sollux snickers at you.

"Becau2e iit wa2 funny." His smile fades and he removes your hands from his shoulders, "But 2eriou2ly, KK you 2hould go get 2ome re2t. Anyone who forget2 two put on 2hiirt ha2 two be tiired."

You sigh, "I would, but I have to make sure I'm awake incase some shit happens and my epic leadership is needed." You can see Sollux roll his eyes behind his blue and red lenses. He grabs your shoulders and pushes you down the hall.

"Go get 2ome 2leep," he says, "ii'll wake your a22 up if anythiing happen2."

Reluctantly you give in and agree to get some rest. Walking through the twisting corridor gives you time to think about the day's events. You can't get the new girl off of your mind. Jade. The name rolls off of your tongue with ease and brings visions of tan skin and wild, black hair. The details of her face and toned body haunt you, making you warmer.

_Shit, NO Karkat! _ You tell yourself as you reach your door. _You're the leader, you can't be thinking like this, it's a distraction and you can't get distracted._ The door opens smoothly and you quickly find yourself sliding yourself into the inviting ooze of your recooperacoon. The slime forms a protective bubble around you and lulls you to sleep.

Visions of battle whisper through your dreams. Smoke and fire, riots in the streets. There are trolls and humans locked in combat, rainbows of blood pooling in the gutter. You're running through the fray, searching frantically for something, but you're not sure what. Your forces are advancing, but there is no feeling of triumph, only worry. But for what, you can't place.

_Thwack, thwack, thwack!_ Three loud bangs wake you from your slumber.

Be Jade

You squirm a bit as Kanaya loops what she called a "tailors tape" around your waist. It tickles.

"Jade," She says with delicate articulation, "Please Stop Moving. I'm Almost Finished." She removes the tape from your skin and writes down the number in a small book. "It's Going To Take Some Time For Me To Make Your Clothes, I Have To Know What Kind of Gear You Need And I Have To Create A Design. However, I Should Have Some Leisure Clothes For You By Tomorrow." Kanaya closes the book and hands you the clothes that Karkat is lending you. "Now Go With Equius. He Will Help You Find An Area That You Can Work In. We All Have A Job Here." You smile at her as you pull on the oversized sweater and pants.

"Absolutely! After what your organization has done for me, I'm more than happy to give my service where it's needed." You open the door of Kanaya's room and meet Equius outside. You flash him a small smile and he nods at you.

"Follow me," he says in a quiet and raspy voice, you obey and follow in silence, unsure what to say. His footsteps are heavy and make the silence much more suffocating.

"So..." you begin, "What is your job?" Equius looks back at you and continues walking.

"I create robotic limbs for those who lose theirs in battle," you eyes widen in surprise.

"Does that happen often?" you almost don't want an answer. Equius shrugs.

"Often enough that we need a specialist for it."

You gulp at the though of losing a limb and you feel your heart tighten in panic. Memories of seething pain coursing through your body mibble at the edges of your mind. With great effort, you force them back and continue down the hall.

Equius takes you to a large room where there are a number of stations. Each one, he explained, was for a different sort of weapon or combat skill. He led you through the stations, trying to help you find a weapon that you could work with. It wasn't easy. You were way to clumsy with blunt weapons, and blades were just as disaterous, if not worse. Equius led you around the room, quietly watching your pathetic attempts to weild each weapon. Even with extensive training, you would never be more than mediocre with anything you had tried so far.

"Do not worry if you STRONGNESS does not lie in weaponry," you jump at his loud emphasis on 'strongness', "There are other areas where you may be of help." Equius stops in front of the last station and turns to you. Long lanes stand in front of you with varying sizes of targets, most with holes in them and a few with scorch marks. An assortment of guns is displayed on a rack with an assortment of ear protection. Equius grabs to pairs of what looks like large headphones and gives one to you before handing you a gun from the rack. He called it a rifle and showed you the basics of pointing and shooting.

The rifle felt natural in your hands, like an extension of your arm. You bring the rifle to a firing position and take aim at a far away target. You focus on it and breath out as you pull the trigger. The recoil from the rifle knocks you back a bit, but the loud crack from the shot rings through your ears with deafening strength. You drop the gun and clutch the ears on top of your head.

"AUUUGHH!" apparently those ears worked, and worked well. You drop to your knees and whimper in pain.

"Oh my," Equius says, "I apologize for not realizing that the canine parts on your head were functional," you sniff as the ringing in your head subsides.

"It-it's fine.' you gently stand up and uncover your ears. "Did I hit it?" Equius looks over and raises an eyebrow.

"Dead center. You make a fine sharp-shooter. I'll have our rifle-men informed." He puts the gun away and you follow him out of the room.

"So will that be my job then?" You ask. Equius nods.

"Most likely, but we will have to find plugs for your canine ears however, they seem much too sensitive for normal combat." The troll leads you down a hall and motions for you to stop outside of a room while he walks in. You wait for a few moments when he brings out a new troll with strange ears. You cringe a bit when you realize that's he's a highblood.

"This is Eridan Ampora. He'll take you from here." You look at the troll and try to smile. He raises an eyebrow at you can sighs.

"Wwell, wwhat's your name?"

"Uh, J-Jade." You say, thrown off a bit by his speech pattern.

"Wwell, come on then. Wwe don't havve all day."

You follow the troll into the room. Your sensitive pick up the faint whirring and beeping of machines and you feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Eridan leads you through the room and you feel your muscles tense.

"This," he gestures around th room, "Is our scientific research facility."

Be Eridan

"So you're our newwest rifle-man." You say as the girl looks around the room with frightened eyes. "As Equius already told you, I'm Eridan Ampora. But wwhat he didn't tell you is that I'm going to be your supervvisor here. I'm going to teach you evveryting that you wwill need to knoww about your position and your responsibilities." You wait for her questions to start, but she just stays silent and continues looking around. You don't paritcullarly enjoy being ignored.

"Wwell, don't you havve any questions?" You narrow your eyes and cross your arms. The girl, Jade (isn't that what Equius said?), jumps and looks at you. She seems to become aware of her current facial expression and quickly forces a shy smile.

"I'm sorry, it's just so much to adjust to. Ummm, what exactly can I expect from my new position?" She pulls at the cuffs of her sweater and you raise an eyebrow.

"As a rifle-man, you wwill be sent out into the field to act as covver for ground soldiers or as an assassin. You must try your hardest not to fail on these missions. You must do your vvery best to protect the soldiers under your wwatch and in an assassination, you must nevver miss your target. You must nevver be seen and you must protect and hunt wwith stealth. That is wwhat you can expect from your position."

Jade looks a bit flustered after that explanation and you smirk a bit. "But of course, you must go through basic training first. Wwe can't risk the livves of our soldiers wwith an amateur." She nods and lets out a small sigh of relief.

A machine behind you beeps wildly and you turn to see what's going on. The fluids in the machine are out of balance. You quickly grab a syringe and fill it with the neccessary liquid before injecting it into the machine's feeding tube. A small whimper sounds behind you. You look to see Jade tensed up and her canine ears flat against her head. She's clearly trying to hold back a reaction to the machine.

"Ummm, your training wwill start tomorroww so the rest of the day is yours. You are dismissed." Jade strains to smile and swiflty leaves the room. You could swear she was legitimatley frightened, but by a machine? You're curious, but not that curious.

Be Jade

You thought you were never going to get out of there. You wind your way to the rooms, hugging yourself and trying to take deep breaths. Memories of tortuous experiments try to worm their way into your mind but you hold them back until you can reach the privacy of your bedroom. You didn't want any of your new friends to see this side of you.

"Hello, Jade." A voice stops you. You turn to the person you just passed and plaster a smile on your face.

"Hi, Rose." You drop your arms to your sides and look her in the eye. She raises a suspicious eyebrow and tilt your head in response. "Is there something you need?"

"Not particullarly," She replies, "But are you feeling alright?" She steps toward you and you step back.

"Yes, I feel fine. I'm just a bit tired and I'm going to go to sleep." You smile again and Rose's face loses it's suspicious look.

"Alright then, sleep well. Kanaya will have some clothes for you tomorrow." She turns and walks away. You quickly make your way back to your bedroom.

Once inside with the door shut you sit on the floor and rest your head on your knees. Your mind floods with pictures of trolls standing around you while you are strapped to a table, unable to move. You can hear a high, rythmic, beeping over the voices of the trolls as they fill syringes with different liquids and force them into your veins. You feel stinging tears roll down your face and pull your knees even tighter to your body. This is not good, you can feel your breathing get more shallow. Why couldn't you keep it together. This place is not the same place you came from.

You try to remember what Dave told you. No one here will hurt you, no one will do anything to you against your will. The trolls here are not like those under the power of the Condesce, they will not do the things the others did. You try repeating these words to yourself, but it's no use, memories of pain cloud your thoughts and visions of silver fog your vision. The tears fall faster now and you feel yourself start to slip into the dark recesses of your mind.

"JADE!" a voice weaves through the pain. "JADE, JADE! COME ON."

Be Karkat

You clumsily draw yourself out of your recooperacoon and stumblr over to the door. _Thwack. Thwack. Thwack._ The person on the other side of the door bangs again.

"ALRIGHT, I'M UP! HOLD YOUR FUCKING HORSES." You open the door and find Rose looking up at you with slight alarm. You immediately lower your tone and ask, "What's going on?"

She darts her eyes over to Jade's door and you cock your eyebrow. "I think something might be wrong with Jade, when I saw her earlier she seemed distressed and now she won't open her door. Did you see her when she entered her room?" Your bloodpusher skips a beat and you immediatley wonder if she is okay.

"I didn't, I've been asleep for a while." You push your way past Rose and approach Jade's door. You knock loudly, but recieve no answer. You knock again, this time hard enough to make your knuckles hurt. "Jade?" You say. You turn to Rose and motion for her to leave.

"More than one person might be overwhelming if she's distressed. I'll take care of her. You go get some rest." Rose opens her mouth to object, but you raise your hand to silence her. "I know what I'm doing. As I recall, she isn't our first." Rose nods and retreats to her room. You knock again.

"Jade?" You put your ear to the door and hear a quiet sobbing. Your breath catches and you gentley open her door. Jade sits on the floor curled up into a ball. The lights are off and you can only see her from the light in the doorway.

"Jade!" You rush to her side and put your hand on her shoulder. "JADE!" you shout her name hoping that she can hear you through her distress. "JADE! JADE! COME ON." Jade lets out a violent sob and hiccups. She sniffs and slowly looks up at you.

"Karkat?" she whispers hoarsely.

"Are you okay?" You ask. She shakes her head and wipes her face with the sleeve of your sweater.

"It's awful, I tried, but they just came back!" She lets out another hiccup and more tears fall from her eyes. You pat her shoulder.

"Shhh, it will be okay. You'll be okay." She sniffs and lets out another sob. "You're with us now, we won't let them take you back." She returns her face to her knees and cries a bit more. You sit with her quietly as she releases her turmoil and you reassure her that in this moment she is safe.

"Are you better?" You ask once her sobs die down and her breathing deepens a bit. She looks up and you can see the dark stains her tears left on her knees.

"A bit. Thank you." She gives you a weak smile back and stand up, offering your hand to help her up. She's only a bit shorter than you, so it takes a bit of effort on your part. But you don't let it show. You are a strong leader after all.

"Come on," You lead her out of the room, "You must be a bit hungry after that. Let's go grab something for you to eat."

"Ummm," she stops and coughs, "Aren't you going to put on a shirt?" You look down and turn red when you realize that you still haven't covered your chest.

"Yeah, I'll go do that. Then we'll go eat." She laughs as you quickly throw on another black sweater and escort her to the kitchen.


End file.
